centipedes - friend or foe?

Whilst digging out the garden I've found a few centipedes, and each one is being deposted into the green waste garden recycling, now I do feel a bit mean, but at least they have something to eat that way. but the question is: is it just dead roots they eat or are they a gardeners enemy in that they dont have any preference and I am indeed doing the right thing?

 

Centipedes are carnivorous therefore do not damage plants at all. They will eat any insect they can overpower and kill. So they are really a gardeners friend, although they do eat spiders which are also a gardeners friend.:(

 

ooh I always thought they were root-eaters :dh: probably from the same school of thought that a worm carries on rather than dies if you chop it in two (I know this one btw LOL, so please)

thank you x

 

Riverside I think your getting your pedes mixed up the one correctly described by stongy is the brown fast one the other centipede is the snake or garden centipede the thin straw coloured one with tiny legs tends to wriggle Geophilus and Haplophilus which is probably the one I think you mean,it's millipedes that will eat seeds and seedlings they are relatively slow moving compared to the centipede and have two pairs of legs per segment.